When ground, soil, or any subsurface becomes contaminated, remediation of the area is often considered. Heretofore, many methods of remediation of a contaminated subsurface required drilling a generally vertical bore hole from a surface into the contaminated subsurface, removing the boring device, and encasing the hole with a liner or casing, for example polyvinylchloride (PVC) piping. Thereafter, a remediation agent was delivered to the bottom of the bore hole through the PVC pipe casing. This technique has limited effect because of the small application area provided to the remediation agent at the bottom of the bore hole.
It was discovered that prior to delivery of the remediation agent through the PVC pipe casing, a jet cutting machine may be lowered into the bottom of the bore hole to cut various patterns in the contaminated subsurface to create a larger application area for the remediation agent. However, this technique has several drawbacks. One drawback is the PVC pipe casing limits the effectiveness and the spray pattern or the expulsion of the pressurized fluid. Another drawback relates to the runoff of the pressurized fluid after exposure to the contaminated subsurface, which must be transferred out of the bore hole in a controlled manner. Further, application of pressurized fluid into the bottom of the bore hole increases pressure inside the contaminated subsurface which leads to hydraulic fracturing of the subsurface in an uncontrolled manner.
The invention of more powerful direct push machines motivated the integration of injection nozzle orifices into the tip of a probe rod, which eliminates the need for drilling and depositing a PVC casing inside the bore hole. Using modern injection tips connected to probe rods, remediation agents are directed through probe rods and the nozzle orifice to apply the remediation agent to the contaminated substructure.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,733,067 issued to Hunt et al. is incorporated herein by reference to provide additional background information on problems faced when remediating a contaminated subsurface. Hunt et al. describes a method and system for bioremediation of contaminated soil using inoculated support spheres.